Istanbul, Turkey
bob | 02.06.2013 10:43 | Social Struggles | World
---THESE WARNINGS ARE STRESSED WİTH WARNINGS LIKE "as I know", "was rumoured that"---
Firstly, to continue from where I left, the protests in Turkey are rising as almost all cities around Turkey and more neighborhoods in Istanbul are full of protesters to support the Gezi Parkı Resisters.
The violent attack towards us on 31.5.13 morning was the turning point of the protests. We were about 3 thousand people in the park and only 100 or 150 people in the Taksim Square at that time, but yesterday, more than 15 thousand people were on Istiklal Street, resisting the cops.
On the attack in the morning 31.5.13, I injured my foot and could not attend the protests until night. Until then, the violence of the cops remained increasingly as more people tried to reach Taksim. They used incredible amounts of tear gas bombs, they fired compressed water from water cannons on people directly. I have to emphasize the word "directly". They used compressed water and tear gas bombs, targeting individuals. There were more than 60 seriously injured people at the hospitals and more than 300 arrests only in Istanbul.
On the other hand, there was a rumour that more than 300 policemen and more than 15 chiefs of police resigned as they refused to attack the citizens.
At the evening, the publicity of Beşiktaş, a neighborhood in Istanbul which is about 30 minutes away from Taksim on foot, started a protest there to support the protest in Gezi Parkı and criticised the violence of the police. That was a really peaceful protest. They were playing pots from windows and on the street. As we heard, cops stopped them in Beşiktaş Square. Then the crowd in Beşiktaş increased and resistance was spread to Beşiktaş as the news from twitter was telling there were at least 10 thousand people in Beşiktaş.
Because my foot was injured, we couldn't leave our house until night, however at midnight, we decided to leave for Beşiktaş. 3 of my friends in my house, and we ran into some other friends on the way to Beşiktaş. While we were walking, we saw many people returning from there.
When we reached there, there were about only 3 thousand people. There were two TOMA's (Toplumsal Olaylara Müdahale Aracı: Massive Incidence Intervention Vehicle) which are actully water cannons, and some robocops (gas masked and fully armed cops) with tear gas bomb throwers. They were attacking the crowd and running back. There were barricades on the square and an almost fearless defence by some of the resisters, however most of the crowd was only watching. There were medics who were squirting milk-water-rennie blend on themselves and faces of the tear gas victims, and I was one of them.
By the way, there were rumours coming to the square stating that about 50 thousand people from Kadıköy (center of the asian side) marching to Beşiktaş in the Bosphorus Bridge, one the bridges which connects the two sides of Istanbul. With the hope of them, coming for us, we tried to resist the attacks, however, again at about 5 o'clock police started a massive attack one the main and secondary streets and we had to leave the area.
While we were running from the gasses, even at as late as 5 o'clock, there were people from the neighborhood who were giving us water and offering us homes to take refuge in. We went to one of ours' house and tried to follow the situation from the internet.
We shared some stuff, we didn't share some of our records as we were afraid of being listed, because each protester who is under arrest is accused for being a terrorists! We heard that people coming from Kadıköy were scattered by the police at the exit of the bridge.
At that time, the protests from all over Turkey was getting harder and in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, and in Izmir, third biggest city, there were really big protests about what was happening in Istanbul.
I have to mention that our motto was changed after the attack of cops on 31.5.13 morning. It was "occupygezi" at the beginning and it was really local,. But after the attacks, it's now "direngeziparki" which means "resist gezi parkı".
On the other hand, there was a previously scheduled meeting in Kadıköy by the main opposition party CHP. That meant that CHP had the right to call for thousands to Kadıköy legally (*). In the morning, there was a rumour that CHP was moving the meeting from Kadıköy to Beşiktaş. Most of the protesters were critisizing CHP leader for splitting the potential crowd.
This part is fully my idea. I think that CHP leader has, for the first time in his political career, made a politically clever move and just after 50 thousand people showed up in Kadıköy, they cancelled the meeting and invited all the attendents to Taksim.
After that call, the government took a step back and they had to give way to the people going there. Again, it's a rumour that the President Abdullah Gül asked the prime minister what on earth he was doing.
Then the cops left the Taksim square and Gezi Parkı, however they kept on attacking while they were withdrawing.
At that time, we were again in Beşiktaş, now with thousands of people marching to the Taksim Square and Gezi Parkı. The crowd was painted red and white and shouting "Side by side against fascism!"
I have to mention that most of the crowd marching from Beşiktaş to Taksim were appearently the supporters of CHP, however the crowd waiting in Taksim and who was resisting for two days there was not. CHP and their members seemed to appropriate all the protests however we couldn't see any CHP members while the attack was still on.
Anyway, when we went to the park, there were people from almost every political or social organization. The nationalists and BDP (known as the party of the Kurds) members, anticapitalist islamists and Alawites, Kemalists and nonviolent resisters were together. This synergy is expanded with so many unexpected unities, such as:
- This year, violence in sports was a big problem in Turkey as it even caused death. However, the fan clubs of so many clubs joined the resistence and they are standing side by side with their jerseys on.
- Socialists, who are blamed for being anti-religious, watched over the "Anticapitalist Muslim Youth" during the Friday Prayer. While the attack from the police went on, socialists stand still in front of the TOMA's and tear gases side by side and they did not let the police pass them and interrupt the (namaz) rituel of Anticapitalist Muslim Youth. As it is known that the government is conservative, they're blaming the protesters for being enemies of religion, however the fact is that the difference between the government and the protesters is not "to be religious or not", but "to be considerate for beliefs or not".
These were the signs of the things I'm going to explain now:
These protests are not based on protesters being on one political side or another.
These protests are now against police violence and scaleful limiting of free speech.
Gezi Parkı is the symbol of the protests but not the aim of the protests anymore.
The reason for the call for the resignition of the government is not based on common politic views of the protesters, it is based on the idea that if a government attacks their people for no reason or if it cannot contain its police forces, then that government is not valid anymore.
In my opinion, this protest will be called a victory only if the government resigns or the government accepts that they were wrong to create a police state and change the law and the police system.
However the government is still trying to call the people protesting "terrorists", which does not resemble the truth at all. After the time I reached the park, I started to pick up garbage. Even though the police tried to collect all the evidence of their brutalism, I found more than a hundred coin sized black objects that I did not understand the purpose of. Then I found out that they were lids of the tear gas bombs (CS) which I found the canisters of and matched the lids with, later. I'm pretty sure that if I found more than one hundred of them, then, there should be actually thousands of tear gas bombs fired in the park on 31.5.13 morning attack only.
At night, police attacked Beşiktaş again and used some gas bombs which are not CS. We couldn't make up what the gas was but we saw that it was worse than hell. It's now being called "orange gas" because of its color but we still don't know what it actually is. Any information regarding this is important and urgent.
As the police terror in Beşiktaş went on, AKP, the government party sent its youth squad in İzmir, my hometown, to help the police with the attacks to the protesters. We see AKP youth members walking behind the cops in a video. İzmir is still on fire. Construction vehicles in Gezi Parkı are on fire and it's confirmed by two reporters that they were arsoned by police without uniforms to blame the resisters.
Besides, it must be added that the protests are actually totally violence-free. I haven't seen any policemen injured in any videos or in any resistences I attended. Protesters are only defending themselves. The creator of the violence is only the police. Even though we know that most of them are doing only what they're told, we're scarred that some of them are actually having fun. I invite the honorable policemen to resign or reject the orders they're told. We are not soldiers or pawns of anyone. We just want them to stop that terror before more people die!
I can't write anymore. I just want to put a photo of tear gas set and translation of the warnings on it. The first, third and fourth ones, which are:
1. Do not shoot directly at people. (They are targeting people)
3. Only to be used by well-trained personnel. (I don't wanna believe that those cops are well trained)
4. For open air use only. (They sent tear gases to the subway by elevators, without the notice of the society)
completely ignored by our police. And the sixth (Using past the expiration is hazardous) is rumoured to be ignored.
We need help, we need denounces!
* There's a belief in Turkey that any meeting without permission is illegal. In constitution, it's clearly defined as "any meeting without guns is legal", but for many years, government repeatedly state that you cannot organize a meeting without permission from the government. The reason I wrote legally and put a star is that, our meeting and occupation is still legal, but we cannot tell the government and the supporters of the government that a meeting should not require a permission.
Firstly, to continue from where I left, the protests in Turkey are rising as almost all cities around Turkey and more neighborhoods in Istanbul are full of protesters to support the Gezi Parkı Resisters.
The violent attack towards us on 31.5.13 morning was the turning point of the protests. We were about 3 thousand people in the park and only 100 or 150 people in the Taksim Square at that time, but yesterday, more than 15 thousand people were on Istiklal Street, resisting the cops.
On the attack in the morning 31.5.13, I injured my foot and could not attend the protests until night. Until then, the violence of the cops remained increasingly as more people tried to reach Taksim. They used incredible amounts of tear gas bombs, they fired compressed water from water cannons on people directly. I have to emphasize the word "directly". They used compressed water and tear gas bombs, targeting individuals. There were more than 60 seriously injured people at the hospitals and more than 300 arrests only in Istanbul.
On the other hand, there was a rumour that more than 300 policemen and more than 15 chiefs of police resigned as they refused to attack the citizens.
At the evening, the publicity of Beşiktaş, a neighborhood in Istanbul which is about 30 minutes away from Taksim on foot, started a protest there to support the protest in Gezi Parkı and criticised the violence of the police. That was a really peaceful protest. They were playing pots from windows and on the street. As we heard, cops stopped them in Beşiktaş Square. Then the crowd in Beşiktaş increased and resistance was spread to Beşiktaş as the news from twitter was telling there were at least 10 thousand people in Beşiktaş.
Because my foot was injured, we couldn't leave our house until night, however at midnight, we decided to leave for Beşiktaş. 3 of my friends in my house, and we ran into some other friends on the way to Beşiktaş. While we were walking, we saw many people returning from there.
When we reached there, there were about only 3 thousand people. There were two TOMA's (Toplumsal Olaylara Müdahale Aracı: Massive Incidence Intervention Vehicle) which are actully water cannons, and some robocops (gas masked and fully armed cops) with tear gas bomb throwers. They were attacking the crowd and running back. There were barricades on the square and an almost fearless defence by some of the resisters, however most of the crowd was only watching. There were medics who were squirting milk-water-rennie blend on themselves and faces of the tear gas victims, and I was one of them.
By the way, there were rumours coming to the square stating that about 50 thousand people from Kadıköy (center of the asian side) marching to Beşiktaş in the Bosphorus Bridge, one the bridges which connects the two sides of Istanbul. With the hope of them, coming for us, we tried to resist the attacks, however, again at about 5 o'clock police started a massive attack one the main and secondary streets and we had to leave the area.
While we were running from the gasses, even at as late as 5 o'clock, there were people from the neighborhood who were giving us water and offering us homes to take refuge in. We went to one of ours' house and tried to follow the situation from the internet.
We shared some stuff, we didn't share some of our records as we were afraid of being listed, because each protester who is under arrest is accused for being a terrorists! We heard that people coming from Kadıköy were scattered by the police at the exit of the bridge.
At that time, the protests from all over Turkey was getting harder and in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, and in Izmir, third biggest city, there were really big protests about what was happening in Istanbul.
I have to mention that our motto was changed after the attack of cops on 31.5.13 morning. It was "occupygezi" at the beginning and it was really local,. But after the attacks, it's now "direngeziparki" which means "resist gezi parkı".
On the other hand, there was a previously scheduled meeting in Kadıköy by the main opposition party CHP. That meant that CHP had the right to call for thousands to Kadıköy legally (*). In the morning, there was a rumour that CHP was moving the meeting from Kadıköy to Beşiktaş. Most of the protesters were critisizing CHP leader for splitting the potential crowd.
This part is fully my idea. I think that CHP leader has, for the first time in his political career, made a politically clever move and just after 50 thousand people showed up in Kadıköy, they cancelled the meeting and invited all the attendents to Taksim.
After that call, the government took a step back and they had to give way to the people going there. Again, it's a rumour that the President Abdullah Gül asked the prime minister what on earth he was doing.
Then the cops left the Taksim square and Gezi Parkı, however they kept on attacking while they were withdrawing.
At that time, we were again in Beşiktaş, now with thousands of people marching to the Taksim Square and Gezi Parkı. The crowd was painted red and white and shouting "Side by side against fascism!"
I have to mention that most of the crowd marching from Beşiktaş to Taksim were appearently the supporters of CHP, however the crowd waiting in Taksim and who was resisting for two days there was not. CHP and their members seemed to appropriate all the protests however we couldn't see any CHP members while the attack was still on.
Anyway, when we went to the park, there were people from almost every political or social organization. The nationalists and BDP (known as the party of the Kurds) members, anticapitalist islamists and Alawites, Kemalists and nonviolent resisters were together. This synergy is expanded with so many unexpected unities, such as:
- This year, violence in sports was a big problem in Turkey as it even caused death. However, the fan clubs of so many clubs joined the resistence and they are standing side by side with their jerseys on.
- Socialists, who are blamed for being anti-religious, watched over the "Anticapitalist Muslim Youth" during the Friday Prayer. While the attack from the police went on, socialists stand still in front of the TOMA's and tear gases side by side and they did not let the police pass them and interrupt the (namaz) rituel of Anticapitalist Muslim Youth. As it is known that the government is conservative, they're blaming the protesters for being enemies of religion, however the fact is that the difference between the government and the protesters is not "to be religious or not", but "to be considerate for beliefs or not".
These were the signs of the things I'm going to explain now:
These protests are not based on protesters being on one political side or another.
These protests are now against police violence and scaleful limiting of free speech.
Gezi Parkı is the symbol of the protests but not the aim of the protests anymore.
The reason for the call for the resignition of the government is not based on common politic views of the protesters, it is based on the idea that if a government attacks their people for no reason or if it cannot contain its police forces, then that government is not valid anymore.
In my opinion, this protest will be called a victory only if the government resigns or the government accepts that they were wrong to create a police state and change the law and the police system.
However the government is still trying to call the people protesting "terrorists", which does not resemble the truth at all. After the time I reached the park, I started to pick up garbage. Even though the police tried to collect all the evidence of their brutalism, I found more than a hundred coin sized black objects that I did not understand the purpose of. Then I found out that they were lids of the tear gas bombs (CS) which I found the canisters of and matched the lids with, later. I'm pretty sure that if I found more than one hundred of them, then, there should be actually thousands of tear gas bombs fired in the park on 31.5.13 morning attack only.
At night, police attacked Beşiktaş again and used some gas bombs which are not CS. We couldn't make up what the gas was but we saw that it was worse than hell. It's now being called "orange gas" because of its color but we still don't know what it actually is. Any information regarding this is important and urgent.
As the police terror in Beşiktaş went on, AKP, the government party sent its youth squad in İzmir, my hometown, to help the police with the attacks to the protesters. We see AKP youth members walking behind the cops in a video. İzmir is still on fire. Construction vehicles in Gezi Parkı are on fire and it's confirmed by two reporters that they were arsoned by police without uniforms to blame the resisters.
Besides, it must be added that the protests are actually totally violence-free. I haven't seen any policemen injured in any videos or in any resistences I attended. Protesters are only defending themselves. The creator of the violence is only the police. Even though we know that most of them are doing only what they're told, we're scarred that some of them are actually having fun. I invite the honorable policemen to resign or reject the orders they're told. We are not soldiers or pawns of anyone. We just want them to stop that terror before more people die!
I can't write anymore. I just want to put a photo of tear gas set and translation of the warnings on it. The first, third and fourth ones, which are:
1. Do not shoot directly at people. (They are targeting people)
3. Only to be used by well-trained personnel. (I don't wanna believe that those cops are well trained)
4. For open air use only. (They sent tear gases to the subway by elevators, without the notice of the society)
completely ignored by our police. And the sixth (Using past the expiration is hazardous) is rumoured to be ignored.
We need help, we need denounces!
* There's a belief in Turkey that any meeting without permission is illegal. In constitution, it's clearly defined as "any meeting without guns is legal", but for many years, government repeatedly state that you cannot organize a meeting without permission from the government. The reason I wrote legally and put a star is that, our meeting and occupation is still legal, but we cannot tell the government and the supporters of the government that a meeting should not require a permission.
bob
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